Three takeaways from the Mariners’ series-ending win over the Boston Red Sox
The Seattle Mariners took three of four games from the Boston Red Sox with a series-ending 10-7 on Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, improving to 5-1 on the season.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
1. BULLPEN ESCAPES — BUT BARELY
Mariners manager Scott Servais commented after Saturday night’s close call that viewers in the East and Midwest should stay up late to watch the end of Seattle’s games.
“You never know what you’re going to get,” he said.
A day after the Mariners escaped a ninth-inning collapse, and two days after the club lost a lead in the ninth, the final frame almost upended them again.
Right-handed reliever Cory Gearrin walked the bases loaded before being pulled with one out and a four-run cushion.
“We’re going to pick up each other, as we’ve always done here, including last year,” right-hander Chasen Bradford said. “When guys struggle, other guys pick them up.”
Bradford, making his season debut, walked in a run before eventually ending the bases-loaded threat with a strikeout and a grounder, and earning the first save of his career.
“It was nerve-wracking, but at the end of the day, I know how to throw strikes and get people out,” Bradford said.
With regular closer Hunter Strickland (right lat) on the 10-day injured list, and likely out for a couple of months, the Mariners will continue to experiment with the bullpen, and shuttling different pitchers out in different situations.
“They’ve all got to pitch, and they’re all going to have to chip in,” Servais said.
2. MORE DINGERS
The Mariners haven’t hit this many home runs through the first six games of the season in more than two decades.
The 1998 version of the team launched 16 in its first six games, and the 2019 Mariners were one long ball shy of tying that mark Sunday, as catcher Omar Narvaez and first baseman Jay Bruce went yard for the club’s 14th and 15th homers of the young season.
“Everybody is locked in and really focused,” said Narvaez, whose three-run blast in the third gave the Mariners the game’s decisive runs.
Eight Mariners — Tim Beckham (three), Domingo Santana (three), Healy (three), Bruce (two), Narvaez (two), Edwin Encarnacion (one), Mitch Haniger (one), and Mallex Smith (one) — have hit homers this season.
Servais said he knew this year’s group would hit some home runs — but this many? The 11 the Mariners hit during the Red Sox series are tied for second-most in club history for a four-game home series. The record is 12, set by the 1994 Mariners in a series against Texas.
“I thought we would have power on this club,” Servais said.
3. HEALY STILL HOT
Healy broke his streak of exclusively recording extra-base hits with a single in the third inning, but notched another double in the fourth to set a club record.
His six doubles in six games eclipse the record of five in a six-game stretch set twice by Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez in 1992.
Healy also became the third player in club history to begin a season with an extra-base hit in each of the first six games, joining Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. (seven games in 1997) and Phil Bradley (six, 1985).
Healy has eight extra-base hits so far this season, including the six doubles and two home runs.
“I like my approach,” Healy said after Saturday’s win. “. I feel prepared. And I haven’t felt prepared for a long time. I feel excited to go up to the plate, so I’m going to try to stay there for 10-15 more years and we’ll see how it goes.”